Project Brief 2

Posted on 30/03/2015 by Bucha

I tried to show my experience as an individual being here in Australia. Although I have travelled to many other countries but this is the first time I have moved away from family for my higher education. I was told that I would have a fun experience being a student in a foreign country and would enjoy myself but being the only child also affects my responsibilities to my family.

The materials I gathered for this task were mainly from my previous project brief 1 but I added a new video about my arrival in Australia. I had to keep in my mind about narrative that should revolve around my loneliness and thus I began with a video of my arrival in Australia, then the pictures of my so far experiences and last video depicting how I’m treated even after finding some company. I used Final Cut Pro X software for editing the materials. I first added the title and then all the videos and pictures into the timeline. As the task required 3 sounds to be added, i knew where to put the two sounds but i was having difficulty into finding what to do with the third sound, what should i add? I then called my friend back in Pakistan if he can create this background music for this task, he happily obliged and created one in just few hours. he called it the ‘lesser me’, don’t know what he meant by that but it worked for the video anyways. As for the text, I added subtitles in one part of the video where I have this conversation with my older cousin, the conversation is in my native language Urdu so to make it convenient for the viewers I added the subtitles.

The most successful part of my self portraits were the pictures. I know i did justice to it as being into photography for three years really helped in expressing my self. I knew what had to be done and didn’t took that long to get it right. the least successful part of my self portrait were the sounds, I think this is the area where I’m weak and i feel i didn’t do justice to it. I guess I should practice in making some tunes and maybe watching films and how the sound adds the fascinating element to the whole package of viewing experience. Narration (voiceover) is the other part where i feel i was unsuccessful, I’m no actor but i tried to express to support the story. Sound is the part where i feel i should definitely work and will improve as my journey goes on.

Reflection- Lectorial Exercise- week 4

Posted on 25/03/2015 by Bucha

What a joy, creating a narrative by using up to 5 cards. It was really exciting, we had to create a narrative into 5 sequences first, then we had to add a turning point by replacing a card and in the end we had to add new starting and conclusion to the story which makes total 7 sequence in the end.

First sequence is about getting your idea on the table, second is the plot twist, third one is the addition of new materials to the narrative. This card exercise informs us the time and space of the event and thus add meanings to the narration.The ‘movable part’ helps to understand the other side of the character’s story. I think it is somehow related to a persons life, his daily activities or strange encounters that normally one does not face works best as movable parts. The characteristics of ‘movable part’ involves drama, comedy, climax, action and adventure.

The Kuleshov Effect

Posted on 24/03/2015 by Bucha

In today’s class, guest lecturer Liam spoke about the editing techniques and how by breaking the clips and combining them creates a different meaning and how the audience relate to it instantly but the thing that caught my eyes was the ‘Kuleshov Effect’. It is an editing technique that by which viewers derive meaning by viewing two sequential shots. The example Liam showed us was a face of expressionless man looking straight at the camera and alternating with different shots (a girl in a coffin, a woman, soup bowl). The interesting part is that without even saying a dialogue or proving any reaction on the screen, we as a audience interpreted in three different ways, was he feeling sad for the girl, was he hungry or was he seeking lust?

Check out the following link decide for yourself.

Video Editing Practice

Posted on 19/03/2015 by Bucha

This is the video I edited by using clips from stock footage.

Feedback from my peers

Posted on 19/03/2015 by Bucha

My peers pretty much enjoyed my work, there is this picture where I’m sitting on a chair and showing my stress mood in a long exposure photograph that Jack commented, He said there was no need to make a long exposure photography and the meaning would have been the same regardless where i would be sitting, I had a look at it again and makes sense, the meaning that I was communicating through that picture would have been the same. But the long exposure photograph looks cool so i think I’ll probably keep it. Dusty It’s not that hard to give feedback as long as you understand the meaning of that content and what the producer is conveying his/her message through that content.

Project Brief 1

Posted on 18/03/2015 by Bucha

Should I post my work that describes the true (Me) or what I want you to think about ‘Me’

Here are the following Media ‘Texts’:

Photography:

The first image describes about my first experience, it’s a shadow of myself signifying my journey as an independent individual

The second picture is about my spiritual beliefs:

In this picture i tried to convey a sign of loneliness as the picture is overall black and the silhouette is displayed.

The last picture is a long exposure photography, over here i wanted to tell how my life is at this point of time, stress was my focus in this image.

Videos

The first video shows my work station or study station, here I’m just minding my own business, but do you notice anything that tells about me?

The second video shows how I’m treated when i meet one my cousin’s friend, I don’t complain to them, I just keep things to myself to avoid any confrontation.

Sounds:

The first sound portrays my other interests or what I like to do in my spare time and the second one renders my night life.

Texts:

Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the Force!- Elaine Maxwell

تو لکھ بہلا کہ ویکھ ساکوں، اسا یاری فر بھی نیبھاوا گے، تو پانی پی پی کہ تھک ویسے، اسا ھیچکیا بن بن کہ اسون۔

In Roman Urdu:

Tu lakh bhula kae wekh sakoon, Aasan yaree Feer we nibha wan gaen, tu pani pee pee kae thaakh wasain, aasa hickhyian ban ban k aason.

The first quote reflects my responsibility in any work environment that is thrown at me, I know my strengths and weaknesses and thus I’ll do tasks with full commitment.

The second quote is in my mother language ‘Sai-reki’, what it basically means is that no matter how far I’ll go, I’ll keep our bond of friendship and never forget the memories that we shared. I miss my country, my family and so that is why I wanted to put up a text that is connected to my roots.

Ideas for Self Portrait

Posted on 17/03/2015 by Bucha

Following are the things that I have in mind:

Long exposure photography
Close up shots
Some Texts in my mother language (Urdu)
Sounds of my surroundings
Creative Flash Shoot
Shadow portrait
A sound clip something that I love to do

Thats pretty much it, lets see what I post in coming days of my Project Brief One.

Media Lectorial week 3- Reflection

Posted on 17/03/2015 by Bucha

Exciting day, well not really, today was all about how media practitioners should have ethics and we were introduced to different copyright laws. I never actually bothered about the formalities of copyrights in my previous projects as they are not a huge concern in my homeland Pakistan, although we did mention credits and reference it from where we got the material from just for the sake of making the producer of that content ‘famous’, lol.

But on a serious note, if you put yourself in others shoes, you will get the sense of being denied of the existence of your hard work if someone used your music or a footage without your permission and not getting credit for it. I’ll keep in mind of these laws and it is morally right to ask permission for using someone else’s work. Well at least RMIT has my back incase something does go wrong with the copyright issues.

Mr Cage

Posted on 12/03/2015 by Bucha

The man who famously treated ‘silence’ as a sound. Is there actually silence? I would say no, there is sound present even when are quiet, you hear the sound of ambience. John Cage was a American composer, an artist who mastered the craft of non-standard use of musical instruments. He is famously known for his 4’33” composition.

On August 29, 1952, pianist David Tudor in Maverick Concert Hall, near Woodstock, New York performed “4’33”. It has been called the “silent piece,”its main purpose as per John cage was that there is no silence, sounds are present everywhere. During the performance, there were sounds of raindrops pattering on rooftop, people walking in and out, winds stirring. John cage was of the view that people didn’t know how to listen and what they thought of silence were accidental sounds.

It wasn’t until in 1961 after publication of Silence that Cage’s music (collection of John’s lectures and poems) that found a place in few of the minds of American audience and understood the concept of 4’33”. People were riot and thought his piece of work a bizarre, stupid and even ridiculous. Like it or not, Cage will have a presence in our lives for a long time, in form of his work, his theory and his compositions.

References:

Gilgoff, D 2002, ‘Fifty years ago, John Cage played the sound of silence’, U.S. News & World Report, vol. 133, no. 6, p. 38

Ross, A. 2010, SEARCHING FOR SILENCE: Onward and Upward with the Arts, The New Yorker Magazine, Inc, New York, N. Y.

Media Lectorial Exercise- noticing audit

Posted on 10/03/2015 by Bucha

It came as a surprise that there are heaps of Media texts surrounding us, I’m not sure how many i actually noticed intentionally and covered at Federation Square but here are the following:

Huge Screen
Welcome to Federation Square (Digital sign)
Public event Notice
Restaurant Name Signs and their deals
Recycling Bin
7 Eleven Store icon
On ground written texts
Bike share sign
Federation Square website URL
Welcome to thai culture advertisment on poles
Printed artwork images on chair
Lipton tea Sign
Formula 1 Advertisement
Traffic lights
Toilet Signs
The paper and smart phone in my mind, i interacted with my smartphone all the time as i was taking pictures and recording my findings of media texts.

Here are the pictures

During the exercise, I noticed that I was more aware of different media texts, previously whenever I crossed by Federation Square, I would be avoiding every media content but today was a different story, I was consciously noticing the media around me. Secondly, by recording the images, it has made it more clear to me that this information stays longer in the mind as compared to just viewing it.

A.R Bucha

Photographer, Editor, Documentary Film Maker

Monthly Archives: March 2015